EU working hard with partners to solve Libya crisis: Mogherini

The European Union's work to help solve the crisis in Libya is all-encompassing and involves broad cooperation with its partners, High Representative Federica Mogherini said today.

Speaking after the first meeting of the Quartet on Libya in Cairo, Mogherini said: "I would like to underline very clearly that the European Union's work and attention and priority on the Libyan crisis is something we do not see purely through the migration-issue lens.

"This is a humanitarian tragedy, we feel the responsibility to tackle, together with our Libyan friends but also together with our African friends and our Arab friends and the United Nations. Also because the trafficking and smuggling business is part of one of the problems that Libya is facing in this moment and the loss of lives ... is something we all have to take responsibility for to stop it."

The Quartet was created when the United Nations, African Union and League of Arab States invited the EU to join their common work to find a solution to the problems facing Libya. The High a Representative will host the next Quartet meeting in Brussels in a few weeks' time.

The EU is currently implementing a practical package of support measures for Libya worth €120 million, which pays for projects covering the health sector, governance, security but also civil society, protection of people, youth and education.

The EU has already fully trained the first 90 Libyan coastguards in a programme to help Libya control its territorial waters, dismantle the traffickers' networks and in turn help the economic situation in Libya.